Saranac Dry Hop Lager | Matt Brewing Company / Saranac Brewery

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Reviews by WesWes:

The beer pours a beautiful golden color with a thick frothy white head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is decent. It has a bone dry pilsner malt scent along with a touch of bitter hops. There is a slight bready aroma as well as a hint of yeast esters. The taste is good. It's a full bodied lager with excellent mouthfeel and a nice bitter hop flavor. This isn't your typical fizzy macro lager. The malt flavor adds a good deal of balance and taste. This is a very enjoyable American lager. It's not light on malt or hop character.

More User Reviews:

A very nice looking lager poured with a deep golden body crystal clear no haze, creamy textured white head holds strong for quite awhile. The band says it's about 30 IBUs and that it's a German style lager dry hopped for an added punch. Aroma has a nice cereal grain, citrus/grassy hop notes. The flavor is great for what it is, a great pizza and beer type of brew. Enough grains and malt sweetness to compliment bread dough/light biscuit malt flavors with a clean rolling, herbal citric bitterness hints of fruity character from the hop additions very mild hop bitterness finishes crisp and clean. Mouthfeel has a lingering bitterness a bit of pelletized hop harshness peaks through but nothing that ruins the experience carbonation pretty dead on for the style light to medium bodied lager, I can't complain about too much. Overall, more flavor than the average Saranac lager, I'm actually a fan of this one. The pack looks like it has a nice variety for this Spring 2014...Irish Stout, Red IPA, White Ale, Dry Hopped Lager, Pale Ale, Forbidden IPA.

A: Pours a clear golden amber with a one finger mostly white head. Average amount of visible carbonation in the body. As the head dissipates over the course of a couple minutes some nice lacing sticks to the side.

S: Mild hop bitterness in the aroma followed up with a clean lager smell. Not much to write home about here but isnt offensive.

T: Comes across as a typical lager with an additional dose of hops. Isn't overly bitter as it only clocks in at 30IBU. Aftertaste gives a bit of malt sweetness. Bready like quality lingers for a bit.

M: Light to medium body with moderate carbonation. Goes down easy.

Overall it is a slightly hopped up version of their american lager. Not as much bitterness comes through as one may expect from a beer with hop in the name.

You can hardly argue against this beer. I was so surprised when I saw the low score on BA. So here's my list of pros and cons...

PRO:
1- Clear deep-golden/brass body with a frothy head of bright white. Very good retention and surprisingly good lacing.
2- Bright, fresh floral hop aroma over clean bready/straw-like malt.
3- Malty, without adjunct, and backed by a solid 30 IBU's (it actually seems a bit higher). Decent sized beer, not just a hoppy standard American lager. 6.0% abv.
4- The floral, grassy and delicately spicy hops return in the flavor as well.
5- Hops rally again in the pleasant, long-lingering finish. Nice bready/grassy malts.
6- Clean and well-made, with solid ingredients and a great balance.

CONS:
1- ??? Maybe that it's too affordable ???

This is how I imagine beer used to taste in the U.S. before prohibition. In fact, this is probably even better. It might not have had the dry-hopping back then, but we've got better hops now, and the quality and consistency of all beers are definitely better today. I imagine I'm going to enjoy quite a few of these this summer.

From the 2013 spring mixed 12 pack from Saranac found at Evergreen Liquors in Frederick.

Look: Super clear bronze color with a thin layer of beige foam that produced some sticky lacing on the glass. Carbonation bubbles were very active and continuous.

Smell: Burnt toast and some grassy hopps. A heavy wet basement character was also there. Malts were forward and hops seemed to occasionally come through Despite this off-putting description, the aroma was rather pleasant and unique.

Taste: Upfront were semisweet malts and then grassy and citrus hop notes that made up the middle. The finish has some pine and citrus. The lager qualities were hard to detect. This beer actually drank more like the Big Moose or even the regular Saranac Pale Ale.

Picked this up in the spring variety pack which was heavily discounted to 14 bucks for 24 bottles with 6 varieties. Into a pint glass.

A - Well even though its over 4 months old the carbonation is rocking giving me a solid 1/2 inch that doesn't quit, being fed by a ton of bubbles an decent lacing. If anything its a touch darker than a pale ale or lager rather a deep amber brown hue.
S - Well you have a touch of skunky lager yeast meets some dry herbal hops in a clash with what appears to smell of very little sweeter malts. And then the taste...
T - One words that describes it to me is forgettable. Don't get me wrong the lager taste is very mild not skunky but it doesn't taste too interesting either. And the dry hopping does add a dimension to it giving a kiss of herbal and tropical hops but other than that it just fades to nothing.
M - Light to medium which is pretty stellar for a 6% beer. It has that going for it.

Overall just like most offerings this beer just falls between the cracks. Sure it's drinkable and I will be dammed quite an exceptional brew for just 59 cents, hell I have had way worse at that price. Its just too simple for me. I may however pick up another variety pack just to drink it again and I still have 3 more in my first pack. Take it for what it is a simple lager with mild dry hopped notes.

Pours clear copper color with a thick 3 finger foamy beige head that faded slowly with tons of all different sized bubbles in the head, leaving decent foamy lacing.

Smells of toffee, roasted grains, smoked malts, herbs, toasted wheat like a crisp and almost burnt cracker, and some floral hops. Not the hop profile I was expecting, and yet not smelling like a typical lager either – kind of strange overall.

Tastes malty up front, with caramel, grains, sweet malt and toast or a burnt biscuit followed by a wave of hops which have a mix of lemon, piney hops, floral hops, tea leaf, herbs, and light spices like coriander and pepper. The malt sweetness overpowers the hops mentioned on the label and the bitterness is minor, yet somehow this beer seems balanced from the malt and hop union.

Mouthfeel is smooth, with a medium body, very mellow carbonation, and a smoky finish which I assume is from the malts.

Good for a new beer as part of the Saranac variety pack, but the weak hops presence overall would deter me from buying a six pack of this. Good thought and attempt to create an exciting hybrid, but the execution in brewing missed that mark and disappointed me overall since there was no major hop elements to this beer besides the name.